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PGMA's Speech during the 2008 First Fellowship Meeting of the Association of General and Flag Officers, Inc. (AGFO) |
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Tejeros Hall AFPCOC, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City |
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April 18, 2008 |
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Thank you very much Secretary Ermita, one of the four
AGFO members in my Cabinet. General Echeverria and the other officers and members of this very, very prestigious organization, an organization I have already spoken to before I became president. General Halbi, Congratulations! And may I also thank Brunei for your valuable contribution to the International Monitoring Team for our peace process in Southern Philippines. Our members of the Cabinet who are here: Secretary Teodoro, Ronnie Puno -- I started with the civilians -- and Bert Gonzales and now our AGFO members, Angie Reyes, Larry Mendoza and Jun Ebdane. General Esperon and the other officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who are here, Ambassador Teo, guests, ladies and gentlemen. Salamat sa inyong pag-imbita sa akin at salamat gaya nang sabi ni General Echeverria na napakarami kayong narito ngayon. Thank you very much for your attendance. But more than that sa patuloy na pagtaguyod ng AGFO sa ating Saligang Batas at mga proseso ng batas, maraming, maraming salamat. Importante yung paninindigan niyong ganun dahil hindi matawaran ang mataas na paningin sa inyo ng ating mga kawal at pulis, at ng buong taong-bayan. Tunay na patuloy kayong tinitingala ng marami. You continue to play your role in nation-building. Hindi pala totoo yung general's fading away because generals continue to play an important role influencing the incumbent officers and, in fact, influencing society at large. With your inspiration, we have succeeded in cutting by half the number of insurgents from 2001. Our Chief of Staff Jun Esperon and all those who served him in his post before him, including Larry and Ed... no, including Angie and Ed had imparted the right principles to our soldiers. Congratulations for that! With your inspiration, crime rates have dropped over the years even as our police forces have proven themselves in enforcing the law and defending the Constitution. The leadership of the PNP and their predecessors including Larry and Jun have built up the PNP into the dutiful civilian force it is meant to be. Congratulations also for that! These principles are important on top of the defeat of insurgents, the defeat of criminals because we have had an unfortunate legacy of political violence. I abhor it, and we have tackled it head on. We have met with a lot of success since we announced the formation of what was to become the Melo Commission. Extrajudicial killings are down and prosecutions are up. We congratulate our police, our military. We also congratulate the Head of the Presidential Committee on Human Rigths, Ed Ermita, who has been congratulated in Europe for what we have done -- to bring down political killings by 83 percent last year. We will not be satisfied until we are at zero, but we are making progress, progress in -- Oh! I see Gene Senga over there, another one of the predecessors of Jun Esperon whom we are very proud of. Congratulations also Gene! -- in what our officers and men and women are doing promoting human rights, defeating the insurgents, fighting the criminals. What we are doing is important for our economy because as we improve the security especially of the parts of the country that have known some degree of violence, we are able to move quickly to develop the economy in those areas. Just yesterday and the day before yesterday, I was in Surigao. Yesterday, I was in Surigao del Sur, which is supposed to be one of the centros de gravidad of the insurgency movement. But because so much has been done to neutralize the insurgents in that province, I was in the town of Carasscal, it's a boom town, people are happy, roads are being built, jobs are being created. When we do that we ensure a lasting peace and order and then security is no longer an issue. Our vision is based on a strong and growing economy. It is the central pillar that we have labored to create to help guarantee peace, order and stability in our country. It is paying off: we have the strongest economy in over 30 years, the peso is strong, investments are surging in, we are close to balancing our budget. Because you have been there, and our incumbent officers and men and women have been there to support me, we have been able to make tough and politically unpopular decisions to raise revenues and crack-down on tax cheats and smugglers so that we could invest in our physical infrastructure and in our people, including our soldiers and our policemen. In both the PNP and the AFP, we have invested in our men and women. We have had an increase in salaries and benefits along with improvements in equipment, materials and support services. In the AFP, I thank Secretary Teodoro for paying a lot of attention to this, we've cleansed the pensioners list, saving millions of pesos and cutting processing time for veterans’ claims. With this rationalized list, I hope all outstanding old-age pensions can be settled by year end, especially since we doubled since last year the budget for paying arrearages to P3.528 billion. Last week, I signed the law granting pensions to Filipino WWII veterans who get pensions from the U.S. And we continue to lobby for the passage of the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill in Washington. Earlier when we were on the stage together, I asked General Echeverria, “General” -- ‘cause he was there on Bataan Day – “General,” I said, “the amount I mentioned on Bataan Day about paying the arrearages, isn't that going to cover all our debts for this year?” He said, it's supposed to but he said, he's been talking to the finance officers and there's still a 500 million-peso arrearage or shortfall after that. So as for the shortfall for pensioners that AGFO has pointed out, maybe the Defense Secretary can request a supplemental budget to make the pensions current, or we can make sure that we can complete it next year in 2009. I'm also directing Secretary Teodoro to give me a full account on the actions taken on the RSBS, another issue raised by AGFO. Let us have an end to this issue that will give satisfaction to our men and women in uniform. The men and women in uniform and the people want, and we are delivering investments in three critical areas, what we call the three “Es,” namely, the Economy, the Environment and Education -- all this to elevate the quality of life of our people. Our first commitment and obligation is to put food on the table in the Philippines. Pagkain sa bawat mesa. Rice is a global issue and has deeply impacted the Philippines. With the help of our Armed Forces and our policemen as well as other policy makers and government officials, we are taking strong, swift decisive action to make sure that it doesn’t become a crisis, and we are singularly focusing on mitigating price to the best of our ability. Since the global situation became apparent many, many months ago, we have been committed to help in the increase and stabilize the supply of rice, as well as to deliver targeted subsidies to the poor who are most directly affected by the global rise in price. We have reached out to our neighbors like Vietnam and others in ASEAN and elsewhere to ensure a stable supply and affordable prices. We will continue to work with our neighbors in the region to secure supply. We work with nations of the world to share best practices and best ideas to make sure that this is a one time global event. And speaking with the nations of the world, I am very gratified to hear that the International Rice Research Institute has just come out with a statement saying that in the Philippines we are doing the right thing about the global rice situation. We have directed our government to crack-down on price gouging. Yesterday, after coming from Mindanao, I went to the NBI because when I was still in Surigao, Nestor Mantaring sent me a message that he has some good news for me. “Could I pass the NBI when I come back from Mindanao” And I did. They had done some sleuthing. They had caught some price gougers, hoarders. And I sat and joined them as they prepare the charges and did all the paper work and did all the necessary inquiries and finally put two of those hoarders behind bars yesterday. That is enforcement. Aside from enforcement, we increase the supply of rice where necessary; and we want to make sure that the subsidized rice gets into the hand of the poor and the underprivileged and not into the hands of those who can afford the commercial price of rice. After our meeting today here in AGFO, we will go to the Camp Aguinaldo Commissary, because we are enlisting the Armed Forces to be an outlet for distributing this cheaper rice to the ordinary soldiers and their families who are after all among the less privileged in our society. Our strengthened economic situation gives us the ability and flexibility to respond forcefully to make sure we maintain control of the situation. With this base of new-found economic stability, we are in a much better position to weather these economic and price pressures than ever before. That does not mean that it lessens the pain on our poor when rice and gas prices increase, but we are able to help ease this burden. And so I thank you our Retired Generals and Flag Officers. Because you have supported the rule of law, because you have supported the constitution, we were able to make the tough decisions to raise revenues for our economy, revenues that we are now using for securing the right supply, for doing the proper distribution and for doing the appropriate enforcement. And beyond the rice situation, because you have helped and influenced the people to support the constitution and the rule of law, we're able to invest in human and physical infrastructure. We're able to cut down on corruption and red tape so that we will have an environment where business will invest and where they will create jobs because ultimately, that is the way that we fight poverty. With your support, I remain bullish on our economy, optimistic about our future and deeply committed to being a force for good. Ating mga Heneral, heneral pa rin kayo kahit na kayo ay past 56 years old na. Kayo ay napakaimportante pa rin sa ating lipunan. Maraming salamat sa inyong suporta. Mabuhay kayong lahat! |